As part of the American Home Furnishings Hall of Fame Foundation’s new Leadership Initiative, NBC newsman and New York Times best-selling author Tom Brokaw will headline the 2018 Lead with Vision Induction Celebration on Oct. 14 during the High Point Market.
“Continuing the momentum, we are pleased to honor our inductees with a keynote address from one of America’s most respected newscasters and authors, Tom Brokaw,” says Jeff Child, President of the Foundation board of directors. “Lead with Vision 2018 will focus on celebrating the exceptional leadership of the men and women who have helped build and define our great industry, and we believe this year’s speaker will enlighten all of us with his insights and observations on people of strength, perseverance and courage that he has known and interviewed.”
Spending his entire distinguished journalism career with NBC News, Brokaw began in 1966 in the Los Angeles bureau where he covered Ronald Reagan’s first run for public office, the rise of the Sixties counter culture, the assassination of Bobby Kennedy and the 1968 presidential campaign. In Washington, D.C., he served as a White House correspondent during Watergate and as the principal backup for John Chancellor as anchor of NBC Nightly News. In New York, he became the host of TODAY, followed by his appointment as anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw. Following the death of his close friend and colleague Tim Russert, Brokaw took over Meet the Press for the 2008 presidential campaign.
In addition to his daily news gathering responsibilities, Brokaw reported on more than thirty documentaries covering subjects ranging from AIDS, Los Angeles gangs, race, education, medicine, to immigration and global warming. He also has compiled an impressive list of firsts over his career, such as the first interview with Mikhail Gorbachev; the first network report on human rights abuses in Tibet accompanied by an exclusive interview with the Dalai Lama; and the only American network anchor to report from Berlin the night the Berlin wall came down.
Brokaw’s first book, "The Greatest Generation," one of the most popular non-fiction books of the 20th century was published in 1998. He followed that with five other books, including "BOOM! Voices of The Sixties" and "The Time of Our Lives." He is also a popular essayist for publications ranging from The New York Times to Rolling Stone and a wide assortment of other periodicals and newspapers.
Brokaw has won every major award in his craft, including Peabody, Duponts, Emmys and lifetime achievement recognition. President Barack Obama awarded him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014. His latest book, "A Lucky Life Interrupted" (Random House, 2015), is a powerful memoir detailing a year of dramatic change in which the best-selling author and former NBC anchorman chronicles a year spent battling cancer and reflecting on his long, lucky life.
